


When we first met

by Hellokaelyn



Category: NCIS
Genre: F/M, First Kiss, Friendship/Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-16
Updated: 2018-10-16
Packaged: 2019-08-02 20:40:54
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,450
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16312334
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hellokaelyn/pseuds/Hellokaelyn
Summary: A picture brings back memories that give Ellie the push she needed.





	When we first met

It was one of Ellie’s favorite times of the year. Christmas. 

Usually she didn’t make it back home for Thanksgiving or any other holidays with work, but Christmas time was the one holiday they (mostly) got to have off. Luckily they had wrapped up their case just in time for her to say her quick goodbyes before catching her plane. 

In a usual tradition, the ones who would be in DC would be attending a Christmas dinner hosted by Ducky who came back for the holidays to spend it with the Palmer's. Ellie would be the only one not there, though Nick was also spending it with Lucia and Amanda for the first time in a while. 

She, at the moment, was looking through a box of childhood pictures. It was a tradition she never grew out of, she and her mom would pick a box as her mom kept a memory of almost everything while her dad and brothers went out for their own bonding time. 

“Mom.” Barbara turned towards her daughter who was holding up a small brightly colored box. “What’s this one? I’ve never seen it before.” 

Barbara smiled softly. “I found it when I was cleaning the basement the other week, it’s pictures from when you were around five, I think?” 

Curious, Ellie opened the box. For a few minutes she sorted through the pictures smiling at the things she did remember being that young. 

Until she picked up a picture of two kids smiling with goofy grins at the camera, a familiar park in the background. Their arms were wrapped around each other, the little girl practically hugging the boy. 

Ellie couldn’t take her eyes off the picture. She knew the girl was her but the boy...it  _ couldn’t _ be, could it? 

“Oh, that was one of my favorite ones when I looked through it.” Her mom’s voice broke her out of her staring spell.

“M-Mom...who’s the little boy?” 

Barbara gave her a weird but worried look. “A boy you became friends with literally the first time you met him. He and his mom were visiting a relative or something for some of the summer, he was a really sweet boy from what I remember.”

It really couldn’t be him then, right? What relative would he have had in Oklahoma? 

“Do you...remember his name?”

Her mom looked to be thinking for a few minutes before she smiled. “Nicholas, I’m pretty sure that was it.”

She felt her heart speed up a little. “Do you remember their last name?”

“Eleanor, what’s going on?” Barbara softened her voice, running her hand down Ellie’s hair. 

“I just...I think I know him.”

“Of course you do sweetie, you two played in that sandbox at least twice a week for about two months. You threw an absolute fit when he and his mom left.”

“No..no.” Ellie took out her phone, scrolling through her pictures before she reached one she secretly took of Nick who was smiling at something off camera. “I think the boy in the picture is my coworker.”

Barbara took the phone, trying not to smile. “A coworker you so happen to have a picture of on your phone that he obviously didn’t know you took?” 

Ellie gaped at her mom before reaching for her phone, but Barbara pulled it out of her reach. “It’s not like that, mom!” 

“I’m sure, sweetie.” Barbara grinned before looking back at the picture. “But..I guess it could be him, is this that Torres guy we hear you constantly talk about?”

“W-What?” Ellie scoffed and let out a nervous laugh. “I don’t do that!” 

Barbara made a noise of agreement though obviously not believing her. “What’s his name?”

“Uh..his full name is Nicholas but he likes to be called Nick.”

“Well..” Barbara smiled, her eyes shining with something Ellie didn’t recognize. “He may be little in the picture but that smile is pretty much the same, looks to me that you both found each other again.” 

Later on when Ellie was heading to bed, her mom slipped the picture into her hand.

“When you get back, show it to him. I know you two are coworkers, but maybe this is fate.”

Ellie fell asleep to those words ringing in her ears. 

_ Five year old Ellie Bishop sat in the sandbox almost done building her sandcastle when someone stepped into the sandbox, and onto her castle. _

_ “Hey!” Ellie shouted, she looked up to see a kid two years older than her grinning. Ellie wasn’t surprised, Parker was nothing but a bully. “That was my castle!”  _

_ Parker stuck his tongue out at her. “Aw are you gonna cry, run to your mommy?” _

_ Ellie stood up, about to push him and maybe give him a good kick like her brothers showed her when Parker was suddenly out of the sandbox and on the ground. _

_ “Stop being mean!” Another boy said, it was the first person she seen besides herself that had stood up to Parker.  _

_ “You pushed me!” Parker shouted, getting up from the ground. _

_ “You ruined her castle!”  _

_ “It was a stupid castle!” _

_ “You’re stupid!” _

_ “No you are!”  _

_ Suddenly Ellie’s mom and another woman were in the way, separating the two boys but Parker gave them a glare before running away to the other side of the park.  _

_ “Nicholas.” The other woman sighed, smoothing down the boys hair. “What did I tell you about fighting with other kids?”  _

_ “He was being a bully!” He crossed his arms and pouted.  _

_ His mom gave him a fond smile. “Honey, you can’t go around fighting or shoving all the bullies, then you aren’t being very nice either.”  _

_ Ellie’s eyes widened.  He always fought with bullies? She hoped she’d be that brave one day.  _

_ “But he messed up her castle!” _

_ Ellie’s mom laughed. “Well thank you for protecting my daughter Nicholas, but your mom is right.” _

_ Nicholas sighed loudly, but suddenly his attention turned to her, their moms talking to each other as they walked back to the benches.  _

_ “Hi!” He grinned, as if he didn’t just shove another boy to the ground in front of her. _

_ “Hi.” Ellie felt her cheeks heat up.  _

_ “I’m Nicholas!”  _

_ “Ellie..” She said shyly, looking at him through a curtain of her hair.  _

_ He tilted his head looking at her. “Wanna build another castle? I can help!”  _

_ Ellie nodded eagerly, smiling widely at the idea of someone playing with her.  _

* * *

 

_ “Ellie..” Nicholas said a few weeks later, they were once again playing in the sandbox. _

_ Her head snapped up at the sound of his sad voice. _

_ “What’s wrong? Did you build the castle wrong?” _

_ He shook his head. “Mommy is taking me back home soon.” _

_ Ellie dropped the sand she was holding.  _

_ “But...but you can’t leave!”  _

_ Nicholas looked as sad as she felt. “I don’t want to.” _

_ “You’re my best friend.” Ellie pouted, her eyes tearing up. How could her best friend, her only friend, leave her?  _

_ Suddenly he stood up, holding his hand out to her. “Come on, I have an idea!”  _

_ Ellie took a glance at their parents who were deep in conversation before grabbing his hand, letting him help her up. He pulled her to the other side of the play area, moving a little underneath it. Nicholas took a marker out of his pocket.  _

_ Her eyes widened as he moved to write on one of the poles.  _

_ “Nicholas! That’s a permanent marker...permanent!”  _

_ He rolled his eyes. “No one's gonna care, Ellie.” _

_ She sighed but let him continue. If they got in trouble she was blaming it all on him.  _

_ Ellie watched as he wrote NT, a plus sign below it like they used in math, with EB under it.  _

_ “There!” He said, a proud look on his face.  _

_ She couldn’t help but smile back. Nicholas would be leaving, but she could come back to this whenever she missed him.  _

_ Ellie turned to tell him how great it was, when she saw him close to her face, a slight pressure against her lips.  _

_ It only took her a second to think of what had happened. She seen her parents do it enough times to know. She felt her cheeks heat up, noticing his doing the same. _

_ “Wha..what?”  _

_ Nicholas gave a shy grin. “Something else to remember, it’s how you show someone you love them, right?” _

_ Ellie nodded.  _

_ There was no way she’d forget her best friend now.  _

Ellie seemed to snap awake not even thinking about it as she threw on clothes, her shoes, and jacket before sneaking out her window the way she did when she was a teenager. 

It didn’t take her long to reach that same park from her dream.

She  _ had _ to know if it was real or just a dream from seeing that picture and talking with her mom. She immediately went to the spot she remembered from the dream, the park had been fixed up enough in the years to keep it running but most of it was the same from when she was younger. 

Ellie ducked under the play area, and suddenly right in front of her was the evidence that it  _ wasn’t _ just a dream. She felt so many emotions go through her as she reached up to trace the faded but still there childish writing. 

And suddenly the memories, although choppy, started coming back to her. Ellie had done the one thing she promised not to do, forget her first and most important friend. The little boy who protected her from bullies, the boy who let her have his ice cream cone when she dropped hers, the boy who after that continued to get her favorite flavor just in case she dropped hers again, the boy who helped her come up with pranks for her brothers, the boy who comforted her when a girl stuck gum in her hair, the boy who always made her laugh.

The boy who was her first kiss. 

But most of all she knew...her Nicholas was  _ Nick _ .

Before leaving back to DC, Ellie pulled her mom aside and told her.

Barbara pulled her daughter into a hug. “I can’t wait to meet him when you come home again.”

Ellie pulled away in shock. “Mom!”

She gave Ellie a grin. “Mom knows all, don’t you forget that young lady.”    
  


* * *

The second Ellie was back in DC and knew Nick wasn’t busy with his family, she had called him asking to come over.

And now, an hour after that, they sat beside each other on his couch with the photo on the coffee table in front of them.

“Wow…” 

She had just got done telling him everything she knew. 

“I..think I remember some of it?” Nick scrunched his face up. “But it’s all so blurry.” 

Ellie gave him a reassuring smile. “You don’t have to remember, I just wanted you to know. It’s kind of crazy.”

“Uh yeah, a little bit.” Nick chuckled. “I mean we were friends then, and now years later..”

She laughed with him. “I know, weird.” Ellie got up from the couch. “I should probably go though, I still have to unpack and-”

“Stay.” 

She looked at him a little wide eyed. “What?” 

“We can watch Christmas movies!” He said quickly. Ellie raised an eyebrow.

“You hate Christmas movies.”

“But  _ you _ don’t.” 

Well, there was no way she could say no now. Not that she would have anyway. 

“I have some ice cream in the freezer, let me go get some.” Nick said, leaving into the kitchen before she could even say anything.

“Okaaay..” She said under her breath, shaking her head. 

Minutes kept passing, and Ellie started getting suspicious, it didn’t take  _ this _ long to just scoop ice cream into bowls. 

“Nick?” She called. 

“I’m coming!” 

She looked up as he walked in, her eyes immediately zeroing into the fact he was carrying ice cream  _ cones _ not bowls. And they were both chocolate chip.

“You...you hate chocolate chip ice cream.” She said, her voice almost in a whisper as she grabbed her cone from his hand. 

“Just in case you drop yours.” He looked right in her eyes as he said it.

“You remember!” She grinned and took a lick of her ice cream, not even noticing Nick glance at the action. 

Nick said nothing as he started the movie, wrapping his arm around her. Ellie let out a content sigh wasting no time in leaning against him.

* * *

 

**_Two years later_ **

Ellie was finally sitting after hours of standing and dancing. Her eyes were having a hard time moving from Nick, who was spinning a laughing Amanda around on the dance floor. 

“So how’s it feel to be married?”

Barbara couldn’t help but grin at her daughters jump.

“Mom!” Ellie rolled her eyes, finally looking away from Nick. “I was married before, remember?”

Now it was Barbara’s turn to roll her eyes. “Yes, but it’s different this time.”

“What do you mean?” Ellie now gave her mom her full attention. 

“Jake loved you when you got married, but the way Nick looks at you...it’s like you’re the light of his life.” Her mom grabbed her hand. “And while I know you loved Jake, I feel like there was a part of you that always held back but with Nick you’re just you and I love seeing you being able to be your full self.”

“I love you mom.” Ellie sniffled as she pulled her mom into a hug. 

“Everything okay?” 

They pulled away, Nick stood there looking as if he was about to back away slowly from the two emotional woman. 

“I was just telling Ellie how lucky she is.” Her mom gave a wink before walking off where Ellie’s dad was just getting off the dance floor from a whirlwind of Abby Sciuto.

“I would hope you know how lucky you are.” Nick said with a cocky grin. Ellie gave his arm a little smack. Nick laughed and kissed her. 

Ellie suddenly got a twinkle in her eye. “So how’s it feel to know not only am I the first girl you kissed, but will be the last?”

Nick leaned down giving her a kiss that answered the question in itself. His hand was on her cheek when they pulled away, their foreheads resting against the other. 

“I wouldn’t want anyone else to be the last.” 

“Hey lovebirds!” 

They pulled apart to see Alex smirking at them. “Come join the party, you can be disgustingly cute later!” 

Both of them laughed. 

“You heard the lady!” Nick spun her around before pulling her back towards the dance floor. 

Ellie certainly had no problem. Her husband had  _ moves _ after all. 


End file.
